Wind Druid
Wind Druids (or Windys) focus on the right side of the Elemental skill tab. The damage skills do either cold or physical damage, and because they synergize each other, a character has two main elements of attack: Physical and cold damage that build on one another's synergies rather than having to diversify or avoid many enemies who are immune to cold or physical damage. Stats Stock stat point placement works well here. Strength and Dex should be allocated enough to carry gear. Energy should be left alone, and everything else should go into Vitality. Skills 1 in Arctic Blast (prerequisite) 20 in Cyclone Armor 20 in Twister 20 in Tornado 20 in Hurricane A player can diversify a bit and add a few summons if they feel they want to keep the mobs at bay a little more, especially with skill bonus items: Oak Sage for life boost. Most prefer dumping all their spare points in this Heart of Wolverine if it is desirable wanted to boost attack rating especially in groups Ravens can blind opponents and is a prerequisite for the bigger summons. Wolves and Grizzly. By spending a single point in these, coupled with +skill items can make fairly formidable summons, or at least a good distraction. The Carrion Vine and Solar Creeper are not very effective for regaining mana and health, but can be used to clean up corpses in situations where corpses pose a threat. The Horadric Ancients who can raise Bone Fetishes or a group of Fallen Ones with their Shamans close by are two such examples. Items Helm Peasant Crown: The poor man's Harlequin Crest. +1 skill boost, boost to Energy and Vitality Ravenlore: The best of the unique Druid pelts for elemental druids. Harlequin Crest: +2 Skill boost, nice magic find. Armor Skullder's Ire: Skill boost, level dependent magic find Skin of the Vipermagi: Faster cast rate, +1 skills, bonus to resistances. Que-Hegan's Wisdom: Caster related bonuses, +1 skills Enigma: +2 skills, level dependent magic find, massive attribute boost, and of course: Teleport! Chains of Honor: +2 skills, large resistance boost. Belt Arachnid Mesh: Skill bonus Verdungo's Hearty Cord: For those where hit points are the bottom line. Gloves Magefist: Preferred because of their properties relevant to casters Frostburn: Nice addition to mana and easier to obtain than Magefists.Frostburn Boots Aldur's Advance: Life boost, fire resistance, and Vulpine attribute Silkweave: Caster related attributes Amulet Mara's Kaleidoscope: +2 all skills, +20-30% resistances. +3 Elemental Skill amulet +2 Druid Skills if you diversified into summons and are too lazy to swap amulets Rings Stone of Jordan: For its +1 skills and caster related attributes Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band: +1 skills and bonus to life Weapons Spirit Runeword: +2 all skills, added FCR Earthshaker: +3 elemental skills. Earth Shifter socketed with -15% requirement jewels or Hel runes. Massive+7 bonus to elemental skills, but massive strength requirements. Creatures which are both cold and physical immune are not very common, but it does happen enough to be a nuisance. If Infinity is considered a problem to construct because it is expensive, items which produce Amplify Damage or Lower Resist effects might be worth looking into for either the druid or the mercenary. Wands can have Lower Resistance charges, Items like The Vile Husk and Pus Spitter can have those effects as procs. There would still be a matter of having those effects activate in a timely manner, however. Shield Sigon's Guard: +1 all skills, very easy to obtain. Lidless Wall: +1 all skills Spirit Runeword: +2 all skills, added FCR The Ward or Tiamat's Rebuke with a Perfect Diamond if you'd rather focus on resistances. Hireling Your Hirelings can save your life when you get into the huge mobs. The defensive merc from Act 2 with the Holy Freeze aura has the perk of being able to slow even cold immune monsters. Helm Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest: Fairly easy to find, life leech and resistance bonus Guillaume's Face: Crusing blow, deadly strike. Crown of Ages: Skill bonus, sockets Weapon Insight Rune Word: Easy to construct, great meditation aura Hone Sundan: Crushing blow, 3 sockets. Infinity Rune Word: for those with high runes to burn, the conviciton aura is a nice complement to your elemental damage, not to mention being able to break elemental immunities. Armor Duress Runeword: Crushing Blow, and Um being the highest rune necessary to construct the runeword. Fortitude Runeword: +300% Damage Chains of Honor: Again, for those with high runes to burn, resistance bonus and +2 skills can prove to be a good benefit. Tactics The usual tactic is summon any minions you have, activate cyclone armor, cast Hurricane outside of town and use Tornado or Twister to help whittle down your opponent's life if they aren't immune to physical damage. Tornado and twister are difficult to aim, and you may want to be quite close to your foe when firing them off. A common tactic to use is Teleport to jump on top of your opponent and shred them with the Hurricane and Tornadoes/Twisters (twisters is preferrable for PvP as they have a stun effect), the slow from the Holy Freeze aura and the lowered resistances from Infinity. Mileage will vary.